The Meneely foundry in West Troy is one of the most significant bell
foundries in the New World. It was founded in 1826 and went out of
business sometime around 1851. The records of the firm are at the New
York State Library in Albany, and a finding aid for that collection is
available. During their history, they made about 75,000 bells. There's
an amateur historian in town named Gene Burns who has tracked down about
8,000 of the ones that have survived to the present.
There was another Meneely bell foundry [Clinton H. Meneely Bell Company, the maker of the Dunedin bell] across the river from them,
located at 22 River Street here in Troy. It came about because of a
family feud. Andrew Meneely, the founder of the West Troy firm, had
three sons. Before he died in his 40s, he had brought the oldest one
into the firm. That son brought in the second-oldest after his father
died, but the third son went off to fight in the Civil War. When he
returned in the late 1860s, the two other brothers wouldn't let him into
the business, so he crossed the river in a huff and started his own
firm. That firm made about 25,000 bells, including the replacement for
the Liberty Bell that hangs to this day in Independence Hall in
Philadelphia.
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